The growing hostility of Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill which bars Americans from adopting Russian children, provoking anguish among US families that have been waiting months, and in some cases years, to complete the process.

The legislation caps a year of increasing Russian hostility toward the United States, stoked by Putin, but taken up with unexpected gusto by members of parliament.

A series of measures has taken aim at what is perceived to be — or characterised as — American interference in Russian concerns, from political organizing to the defense of human rights.

The adoption bill is seen as retaliation against a US law that targets corrupt Russian officials.

Passage of the legislation is a benchmark in the deterioration of Russian-American relations, and unlike some of the earlier, symbolic moves, it has real consequences.

Over the past 20 years, 60,000 Russians have been adopted by Americans, and officials said the measure would block the pending adoptions of 46 children.

It’s pretty despicable to use orphans as a political weapon. It’s also very stupid. It will not harm the US Government. It will harm the orphans, devastate the potential adoptive parents, and just reinforce the growing view that Putin is an intolerant authoritarian ruler who should not be trusted.

another view albeit from the Washington Post but it makes a bit of sense, its more to do with internal popularity than getting at the US. Its a move popular internally with the Russian equvilant of Winston First voters

Lets be honest 46 orphans are going to be a major concern for either country.

Reid

What’s the point of looking at a geopolitical issue unless you’re prepared to look at it geopolitically? And that has nothing to do with adoption rights or whether or not “Putin is an intolerant authoritarian ruler who should not be trusted.”

It’s just naive to think this sort of thing happens just out of the blue. Of course it hasn’t. Nothing like this ever does. Stuff briefly alludes to it, but this has more detail on the causal reason.

But seriously, if the first thing you thought of when you read this thread-post was something like ‘gee, Putin’s a really meany’ then it’s no wonder things like the western takeover of Syria slip in right under your geopolitical radars.

Let’s face it, Russia never underwent a European style democratic Enlightenment period, so its society and political leadership transitioned from Tsarist autocracy to Stalinist totalitarianism to post-communist “Putinism” after 2000. It’s a one party oligarchic state with facade pseudo-democratic institutions, in which a corrupt nomenklatura run state interfaces with corporate cronies and the Russian Orthodox hierarchy. I’m not hopeful that would change even if the Putin/Medvedev double act fell from the apex…

Rodders

louie

Another fail for Obama and (Hilary) Clinton diplomacy. Remember the stupid ‘reset’ button from March 2009. What a farce.
At least she seems to have learnt something per her ‘evil empire’ speech earlier this month.

kowtow

……chardongayguy gets a dig in at the Russian Orthodox hierarchy……and why wouldn’t he,being a bigot?
They’ve been a part of Russia for a thousand years ,missionaries from Byzantium brought the Light to Russia before the Turks extinguished it there.It has survived the communists,and will survive the kiwiblog anti Christian bigots too.

…from RT, the state funded channel. When was the last time RT ran a story either positive about the USA or critical of Putin?

Are you saying that that didn’t happen Rodders?

Don’t you believe Dima Yakovlev cooked in a car in Virginia?

Or that Masha Allen ended up the sex slave of a pedophile?

What hypocrisy – if anything like those things happened to a child adopted from NZ to America the Govenor General would be signing a law banning Kiwi kids being adopted by Americans in about five minutes flat, with near universal approval of the population at large.

Of course we wouldn’t allow Americans to adopt our children to the US of A in the first place

I don’t believe that the behaviour of some sickos reflects on all Americans. In your black and white world, it might.

Eh????

Doesn’t it occur to you that the Russian people might have concerns about Russian children being transported to the United States. And that these concerns might be re-inforced by some ghastly outcomes for some of the children thus transported – trafficked I’d say.

And don’t you have enough insight to see that if these were kiwi kids you would feel exactly the same as the majority of Russians do about it?

Or that New Zealand politicians might react in much the same way as Russian ones have? Only probably a lot more quickly if the truth be told.

It is putting it down to “Putin’s hostility” that is both simplistic and taking a “black and white” view of the world.

Here by the way is the Russian Orthodox heirarch, Patriarch Kirill, visiting an orphanage, its sad kids have to live this way but perhaps it aint as dickensian as you might have been led believe.

hinamanu

I have a feeling Putin is protecting Russian orphans from the fate of US citizens under Obama socialism attacking the constitution and freedoms. Putin also spoke out against the US New World Order which is rapidly falling into place.

“Putin is an intolerant authoritarian ruler who should not be trusted.” Yep, Pussy Riot, Chechnya, Syria, but not this issue. And really. Expecting trust from a politician of Putin’s brilliance, is like expecting Silvio Bellesconi to be faithful.

Kea

Russia is, quite rightly, concerned about nobel peace prize winner Obama’s war mongering and increasing military occupations around the world. Putin clearly does not rely on our western socialist media for his news, so he sees Obama for the dangerous and incompetent President he is.

Time “man of the year” and peace prize winner Obama, has managed to set relations back with Russia by decades. He is a disgrace to his office and a sorry chapter in US history, that unfortunately, we may all have to pay the price for.

pq

Jack5

don’t stop at just Maori kids, let’s trade all kids who come from bad backgrounds! Let’s export the welfare problem!

Where are the married homosexual couples going to get their kids from then Gazzmaniac? Russian supplying closing, and local babies sold to highest international bidders.

At least widening marriage to cover gays may divert some cash from this small group to raise kids who might otherwise be supported by taxpayers.

Kids nearly always reject the previous generation’s views, so gays may in a couple of decades face a new wave of scepticism, if not of opposition. But there will be a decade or two of taxpayer relief in the meantime.

Azeraph

We’ve got a vibrant russian community but i’ve found that some of them are like some south americans and asians, They can’t or won’t learn the local language. So i keep wondering why stay? The russkies just need more business and trade and maybe they should’ve listened to Jk over subsidies.

Azeraph

Manolo (8,567) Says:
December 30th, 2012 at 11:21 pm

That’s not going to solve their problems, they like anywhere else on the planet regardless of economic prosperity will always have their own particular set of challenges just like us, if anything we should divert our english runaways to their first to harden them up a bit.

Meanwhile… in the West… Feminists prize women working in offices over and above child-rearing. There’s a recipe for personal fulfillment and civilizational prosperity. Well it IS – according to crazy old spinsters who’ve nothing to lose of course.